A. C. 1279-1290.] EXPULSION OF THE JEWS.

285

pation, clipping and adulterating the coin. In one year, 280 were executed for this offence in London alone. But not all the statutes, nor public executions, nor the active preaching of the Dominican friars, who undertook to convert them, if they were constrained to hear their sermons, could either alter the Jewish character, still patient of all evil, so that they could extort wealth; or suppress the still increasing clamour of public detestation, which demanded that the land should cast forth from its indignant bosom this irreclaimable race of rapacious infidels. The king listened to the public voice, and the irrevocable edict of total expulsion from the realm was issued. Their whole property was seized at once, and just money left to discharge their expenses to foreign lands, perhaps equally inhospitable. The king, in the execution of this barbarous proceeding, put on the appearance both of religion and moderation. He expressed his intention of converting great part of his gains to pious uses; but the Church looked in vain for the fulfilment of his vows. He issued orders that the Jews should be treated with kindness and courtesy on their journey to the seashore. But where the prince by his laws thus gave countenance to the worst passions of human nature, it was not likely that they would be suppressed by his proclamations. The Jews were pursued from the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their sufferings: one man, indeed, the master of a vessel at Queenborough, was punished for leaving a considerable number on the shore at the mouth of the river, when, as they prayed to him to rescue them from their perilous situation, he answered, that they had better call on Moses, who had made them pass safe through the Red Sea; and sailing away with their remaining property, left them to their fate. The number of exiles is variously estimated at 15,060

and 16,511; all their property, debts, obligations, mortgages, escheated to the king. The convents made themselves masters of their valuable libraries, one at Stamford, another at Oxford, from which the celebrated Roger Bacon is said to have derived great information; and long after, the common people would dig in the places they had frequented, in hopes of finding buried treasures. Thus tern.inates the first period of the History of the Jews in England

BOOK XXVI.

JEWS EXPELLED FROM SPAIN.

Zeal of the Clergy-New Christians—Inquisition-Expulsion of the Jews-Sufferings in Italy-In Morocco-In Portugal-Subsequent Miseries in that Kingdom.

FRANCE and England had thus finally, it might appear, purified their realms from the infection of Jewish infidelity. Two centuries after their expulsion from England, one after that from FranceSpain, disdaining to be outdone in religious persecution, made up the long arrears of her dormant intolerance, and asserted again her evil pre-eminence in bigotry. The Jews of Spain were of a far nobler rank than those of England, of Germany, and even of France. In the latter countries they were a caste-in the former, as it were, an order in the state. Prosperous and wealthy, they had not been, generally, reduced to the sordid occupations and debasing means of extorting riches, to which, with some exceptions, they had sunk in other countries. They were likewise the most enlightened class in the kingdom-they were cultivators and possessors of the soil; they were still, not seldom, ministers of finance; their fame as physicians was generally acknowledged, and probably deserved-for they had in their own tongue, or in Arabic, the best books of the ancient writers on medicine; and by their intercourse with the East, no doubt obtained many valuable drugs unknown in the West. Though they had suffered in Navarre and the adjacent districts by the insurrection of the shepherds, which spread through that region, and were accused in that province, as in the south of France, of causing the dreadful epidemic which ensued, by poisoning the

fountains, they were long protected, by the wise policy of the kings, both in Arragon and Castile, from the growing jealousy of the nobles, and the implacable animosity of the clergy. This protection of the Jews was charged as a crime against Pedro the Cruel by his brother, Henry of Trastamara. Bertrand du Guesclin and his followers, when they marched into Spain to dethrone Pedro, assumed a white cross as the symbol of a holy war, and announced their determination to exterminate the Jews. "Pedro," said Bertrand to the Black Prince, "is worse than a Saracen, for he holds commerce with the Jews." They acted up to their declaration-no quarter was given to Moor or Jew"kill all like sheep and oxen," was the relentless order, "unless they accept baptism." But however Henry might conciliate his French allies by entering into their intolerant spirit to gain his throne, he was too wise to follow it when the throne was won. The cortes seized every opportunity of invading the privileges and increasing the burthens of the Jews-for the nobles, as in other countries, bore impatiently the mortgages with which their estates were encumbered, and were eager to revenge on their creditors the shame and inconvenience of their embarrassments. The cortes of Burgos raised the protection money of the Jews-that of Valladolid attempted to renew an act prohibiting them to practise as physicians, surgeons, or apothecaries, as well as to hold high offices about the court-they also made bitter complaints of their usurious practices. But the clergy beheld with still deeper sentiments of animosity so large a part of the population disdaining their dominion, and refusing tribute to the Church-perhaps holding profitable bonds on the estates of the cathedrals and convents. Religious zeal was still further animated by pride, avarice, and jealousy-they began to preach against them with fatal, if not convincing, energy. At the

HOSTILITY OF THE CLERGY.

289 voice of Martin, bishop of Nicbla, the population of Seville rose, plundered the Jewish houses, and at length the whole quarter was in flames. Cordova, Toledo, Valencia, and other cities, with the island of Majorca, followed the example. Plunder and massacre raged throughout the realm in defiance of the civil authority, and even of that of the king: the only way of escape was to submit to baptism. The number of these enforced converts is stated at 200,000. The old calumnies of insulting the Host were spread abroad with great industry, and in all parts the clergy, with incessant activity, laboured to keep up the flame. The most prominent and successful of these missionaries was Vincent Ferrier, who traversed the country, followed by a train of barefooted penitents, bewailing their sins and scourging themselves as they went, while the earth was stained with their blood. His miracles and his preaching are said to have changed 35,000 Jews to sincere Christians. The antipope, Benedict XIII. (Peter de Luna), maintained the last retreat of his authority in his native country of Arragon. A solemn disputation was held in his presence, in which an apostate Jew, who had assumed the name of Hieronymo de Santa Fe, is reported to have heaped confusion on the discomfited Rabbins, who maintained the cause of Judaism. The Pope assisted his advocate by a summary mode of argument he issued an edict, commanding the Talmud, the bulwark of his antagonists, to be burned, and all blasphemers against Christianity to be punished. The Jews were declared incapable of civil officesone synagogue alone was to be permitted; and after some other enactments, it was ordered that all Jews should attend Christian sermons three times a yearbut probably the deposal of Benedict annulled this law. Another apostate Jew, Paul of Burgos, took an active part against his persecuted brethren. This state of affairs lasted through the greater part VOL. III.-Bb